Sime Darby Property Bhd is seizing the opportunity amid the ongoing pandemic to reimagine the potential Malaysian style of living in 2030.
The developer aims to achieve this through its Concept Home 2030 Competition where it will work in partnership with the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) to reinvent the run-of-the-mill terraced homes, designed and built to suit homeowners' needs.
Sime Darby Property group managing director, Datuk Azmir Merican said the competition encourages participants to address upcoming megatrends and future home predictions, while finding new ways of designing, building, and innovating homes to close the existing gaps in the market.
"It is not about merely designing a house with a green façade that is buildable tomorrow, participating architects are encouraged to push the boundaries with futuristic and inspirational ideas to disrupt the way we design, develop and build people-centric homes via construction, property, and design technology for sustainable communities and townships of the future," he said.
"To shape the future of how we live, we must discover trailblazing ideas from visionaries of the built realm. The biggest challenge to solve for Malaysian terraced home designs today is for it to be built and function efficiently with versatile space which allows diverse functions and use," added Azmir.
The Concept Home should aim to have highly flexible space utilisation and customisable features to cater to multiple members to work and learn from home.
The home should also be expandable based on human needs and modular fundamentals, rather than just individual homes.
"We must respond to disruptions and concerns from the past few decades, especially ones related to climate change, homeownership, material scarcity, as well as evolving lifestyles. Through this competition, we want to see the vision of tomorrow's homes inbuilt with sophisticated technology and features that can improve quality of life and enable more productivity," said Azmir.
Sime Darby Property's history in revolutionising the home design and bringing new ideas before its time was conceptualised over a decade ago through its 'Idea House' - a 'carbon-neutral concept dwelling' for sustainable housing which was the first of such a concept in Southeast Asia.
Elements from the Idea House concept have been adapted in its more recent residential home products, specifically in the City of Elmina, Shah Alam.
The developer is taking a step further and is in search of disruptive concepts to build prototypes that will challenge the norm, adapt to ever-changing trends, reinvent the terrace home from all aspects of technology, sustainability, modularityn and future lifestyles.
"The peak is yet to come for the property industry, and our Concept Home 2030 vision will drive us towards bigger things to come," Azmir said.
Azmir said Sime Darby Property is open to collaborating with other market and technology players to bring the best innovation and solutions to infuse future homes with technology and Artificial Intelligence.
The competition is open to architects registered with PAM, effective August 16, and involves multiple stages before results are announced in January 2022.
Entries will be judged by a distinguished panel of adjudicators consisting of Sime Darby Property and PAM representatives.
The competition winner will win RM100,000 plus prospective commission of executing a virtual or physical showcase project with Sime Darby Property, while second and third-placed winners will take home RM75,000 and RM50,000 respectively.